The trial for the first fracking rig occupation in Lancashire last
November kicks off next week. Starting Tuesday 10th July and scheduled
to last till Friday 13th July... so four full days at Preston
Magistrates Court.

If you're against fracking and want to see it stopped, it'd be great
to have your support, both inside and outside the court room! If you
can't make it down you can still help out by spreading the word (see
below for social media details), and solidarity actions are always
welcome.

Three protesters have been charged with aggravated trespass and are
pleading not guilty based on 'necessity'; asserting stopping fracking is
necessary in the context of run-away climate change and the damage it
will cause the environment and local communities. Defendants will also
be challenging the 'lawfulness' of the extractive process.

The defendants will be backed up by a number of witnesses, both
'experts' and from the local community, who will testify about the
consequences of climate change and hydraulic fracturing, the damage it
causes to water contamination, air pollution, severe health risks,
earthquakes etc. The defence aim to totally rebuke industry claims that
fracking is a harmless 'environmentally friendly' way to extract fossil
fuel... and instead put the industry on trial.

THE ACTION

Protesters stormed the gas rig in Banks,
Lancashire on 2nd Nov 2011, with one team climbing the derrick (drill)
and a second team scaling the pipe handling system, occupying the rig
and stopping work at the site for a day, decorating the slimy machinery
with anti-fracking banners while they were at it.

The occupation of the rig was timed to coincide with an industry
sponsored “Shale Gas Environmental Summit” in London, a farcical event
where industry and government regulators meet to collaborate on
greenwashing PR to cover up the damage done by the fossil fuel industry.

The rig occupation also coincided with the release of a report by
Cuadrilla admitting that the hydraulic fracturing of its first well had
caused several earthquakes.

Since fracking came to the UK last
year there have been mobilisations of local community groups and
environmental activists across the country rising up against the
industry. Including another occupation of the site in December 2011 [1]
and a blockade at PR Marriot Drilling in Chesterfield, where the rig was
being serviced, last month. [2]

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Halting the extraction of more fossil
fuels is essential at a time when the planet is warming exponentially.
Compared to 100 years ago the climate is 0.75 degrees warmer and now, in
2012, the International Energy Agency warn we are on a trajectory to
warm by 6 degrees Celsius in the next 100 years. [3]

For the younger generation this means the world will become largely
uninhabitable in their lifetime, certainly for their kids, if emissions
are not cut. The immediate period, now, is regarded as a tipping point
and despite a lot of rhetoric about ‘tackling climate change’ from
governments, financial institutions and industries alike, in recent
years we have seen the highest emissions ever. [4]

Extracting resources on this scale to feed the industrial system is destroying the environment that our lives depend on.

As
conventional oil and gas production peaks, government and industries
continue to steam roll ahead developing destructive practices that will
provide profitable new markets to line their pockets.

Fracking is part of a recent boom in more extreme methods of
extraction, described as ‘unconventional energy sources’; Tar Sands,
Mountain Top Removal, Deep Water Drilling, Coal Bed Methane, Underground
Coal Gasification and Nuclear expansion.

Extractive industries notoriously deny damaging the environment and
negatively effecting humans, animals or the environment. However there
is a long history of these industries causing wide-scale destruction,
and also long history of cover ups.